Contemporary engines used in aircraft produce substantial amounts of heat that must be transferred away from the engine in one way or another. Heat exchangers provide a way to transfer heat away from such engines. For example, heat exchangers can be arranged in a ring about a portion of the engine.
One type of heat exchanger used is a surface cooler that is mounted to an aft fan casing. However, the space in this region of the engine is limited and current designs utilize nearly all the available space. As a result, newer engine technologies, which have more heat that must be dissipated, will be thermally constrained due to the lack of space available. The problem is further exacerbated in that new engine designs are becoming further space constrained, making the size and weight of the current types of coolers and their mounting systems prohibitive.
An additional problem is that the heat exchangers are subject to relatively high temperatures that cause them to expand thermally, especially laterally or tangentially, yet need to remain fixed to the engine to prevent high cycle fatigue from engine vibration. Generally, such heat exchangers do not account for the thermal expansion during operation resulting in fatigue. Thus, a heat exchanger that allows for thermal expansion during operation while requiring minimal spacing is necessary.